ADOLPH CAESAR DIES

ADOLPH CAESAR DIES; ACTED IN 'SOLDIER'S STORY'

By PETER KERR

Published: March 7, 1986

Adolph Caesar, the gravel-voiced actor who starred in the stage and film versions of ''A Soldier's Story'' and in the recent motion picture ''The Color Purple,'' died of a heart attack yesterday in Los Angeles. He was 52 years old and a resident of New York City.

Mr. Caesar suffered a heart seizure at 12:50 P.M. on the film location where he was working, Adelaida DeLaCerda, a spokesman for the County-University of Southern California Medical Center, said. He died a short time later, she said, in the hospital's emergency room.

Although Mr. Caesar had appeared in numerous dramatic roles with the Negro Ensemble Company and other repertory theater groups since 1970, it was not until 1981 that his starring role in ''A Soldier's Play'' brought Mr. Caesar national attention.

In the Pulitzer-Prize winning drama, he played Tech. Sgt. Vernon C. Waters, a hard-edged, self-loathing black soldier in the segregated U.S. Army of World War II. His portrayal of Sergeant Waters, barking at sluggards. drinking himself insensible and passionately clinging to an unworkable vision of his role in a white world, earned him wide-ranging critical praise, an Obie and a New York Drama Desk Award. An Oscar Nomination

Mr. Caesar was nominated last year for an Oscar as best supporting actor for his performance in the drama's film version, ''A Soldier's Story.''

''It's a marvelous chemistry that happens five times in your career if you are lucky - that you and the part and the play work,'' he had said in 1982. ''I never expected all this attention.''

Mr. Caesar was born and grew up in Harlem and attended George Washington High School before joining the Navy. After his military service he attended New York University, where he studied Dramatic Arts.

For years after his graduation, Mr. Caesar supported himself as a ''voice-over'' announcer, doing commercials for Certs, Renault, Nikon and many other companies. He also did the voice narrations for two PBS documentary series, ''Men of Bronze'' and ''I Remember Harlem.'' Acted With Many Companies

In 1970, he joined the Negro Ensemble Company, and in the following years appeared in its productions of ''The River Niger,'' ''The Brownsville Raid'' and a one-man show, ''The Square Root of Soul,' as well as ''A Soldier's Play.'' He worked also with the New York Shakespeare Festival, the Lincoln Center Repertory Company, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, the Minnesota-Theater Company, the American Shakespeare Company in Stratford, Conn., the Inner City Theater Company and the Center Theater Group at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles.

Mr. Caesar had a small but dramatic role in Steven Spielberg's film ''The Color Purple,'' playing Old Mister, the aged father of Danny Glover. He had recently completed a feature film for Warner Brothers, ''Club Paradise,'' and an ABC After-School Special, ''Getting Even.''

His death occurred during the filming of ''Tough Guys,'' a feature-length motion picture that stars Kirk Douglas and Burt Lancaster, according to Marvin Starkman, a family spokesman.

Mr. Caesar is survived by his wife, Diane; two daughters, Tiffani and Alexandria; a son, Jack, and his brother, Herbie.